Interacting Within the MLS to Increase Your New Home Finance Opportunities
When it comes to driving more leads and generating more new home finance opportunities, technology isn’t a silver bullet. Relationships and people are the keys to more business. But understanding all the available technology and knowing to leverage it can be the first step in generating more business.
In today’s fast-paced market, it’s easy for mortgage lenders to miss connections that are easily within their reach. Being connected to real estate agents can make or break your ability as a mortgage lender to properly navigate opportunities and identify new opportunities within the MLS.
Making MLS Interactions Matter
When it comes to interaction within the MLS, mortgage lenders are not necessarily involved with the process, nor do they always understand the power this technology can provide to their business. In fact, most lenders completely overlook the MLS because it is, after all, a tool for real estate agents.
For the agent, the MLS is the go-to-source for a property and is often the most overlooked mortgage marketing platform. While homebuyers may use online real estate search tools, agents spend most of their waking days on their MLS listing because that listing provides fuel to every other real estate search portal. And, when the time comes for a real estate agent to show a home-buyer a property, they create property listings straight from the MLS.
So, as a lender, what are you doing to leverage this powerful tool?
According to Realtor Magazine, 74 percent of homebuyers consider the mortgage company referred by their agent. To increase your chances of securing that new business, it pays to have your rate information displayed in real time on the listing itself – which means you are effectively inserting yourself into the transaction and using the power of the MLS to stay visible, connected and relevant with the agents that are sending you referrals.
Combining the Right Tools with the Right Platform
To help lenders better integrate with the MLS, RatePlug provides a mortgage marketing technology subscription that generates new home finance opportunities for lenders by integrating loan information into the MLS listings of their partnered agents.
From there, the lender’s rates and products are used to calculate a monthly “cost to own” with PITI, HOA and other fees. Offering an affordability calculator to usher buyers through the decision-making process helps them better understand the true cost of a property.
This can also be valuable in your mortgage marketing automation efforts. By using RatePlug, lenders can display their payment and branding information within the MLS — which increases the chances agents will send that information to homebuyers. That’s going to be your strongest mortgage marketing tool to generate more leads.
Because RatePlug’s technology is fully integrated within the MLS, it has the ability to pre-qualify all properties available within the market. This becomes valuable to all parties involved in the homebuying process (agent, LO and homebuyer) and gives them all the information needed about financing the property.
Empowering homebuyers with all the necessary information to make decisions about financing a particular property is the first step in turning a homebuyer into a homeowner. For mortgage lenders, that’s the first step toward securing more business.